How much did you spend on a engagement ring?

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Spence is aimed at people who don't know what is going on, haha

When I initially was looking around I went into their store they showed me cloudy diamonds that had black spots and terrible cut and colour; then they went on to show me a bunch of low grade diamonds which of course looked amazing in comparison. I can see how they sucker in people that don't know any better.

After they were done the sales pitch I gave them a list of specs I wanted for a diamond. They didn't have anything in the store that was that "high quality", only diamonds in Vancouver they could special order in. My jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw the price, it was quadruple that of other places.




I would have gone this route if I had to do it again

EDIT:
Actually, the price isn't all that great?

https://www.brilliantearth.com/lab-diamonds-search/

Yeah Spence was about double the price for a much, much, worse diamond (like you describe). I can't even imagine what the markup is there, but it has to be in the thousands of percent. Giant showroom, replicas of everything, ultra-annoying radio commercials, - that all costs money.

Brilliant Earth looks pretty decent, I just took a really quick look but you can get a 0.9ct diamond with perfect color, perfect ("super ideal") cut and VS2 clarity for ~$3500. Justin mentioned earlier that prices on lab diamonds were plummeting as well, so I suppose it'll only get better.

The same thing on bluenile is $7-12K for an "ideal" cut which isn't even their best cut. So it looks to be 1/2 to 1/4 the price for the exact same (or better) product which is still really good IMO.

Buying just below 1ct is a sweet spot for value and a good quality 0.9ct will look bigger/better than a crappy 1.0ct anyway. I feel sorry for those people who have to buy 1.0ct and above just so their wife has that magical number to tell their friends haha.

[88CRX]

Buy 0.9ct and tell people (including wife) its 1.0ct

[rage2]

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The price you paid is the price you paid, not hard to figure that out. Are you trying to ask how to determine a rings value? Even if you get the cheapest option possible, you still have no value as it's only worth like 30% on the market if you wanted to sell it.

Yea, anyone that talks resale doesn't realize that nobody comes close to break even on diamonds.

An interesting read on how the diamond market got to where it is today. It's mostly open knowledge, but people DGAF.

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/d...eting-campaign

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Is lab grown beef real cow?

I dunno just seems lame buying a lab made diamond. If you don't want a diamond dug up from the earth I get it but the prices that Spence was peddling for a lab diamond was bullshit. Like I said, might as well go CZ if you don't need or want a real diamond.

To use that analogy, if lab meat was anatomically and chemically identical, then yes it would be the same. It would be like if we cloned cows to slaughter, not something like the Beyond Burger - that would be more like a CZ. I think the part you are missing is that it is literally a diamond, right down to the chemical composition.

A lab diamond is a real diamond. It is a diamond on the atomic level, that is a fact. The only meaningful difference is price, and you still get a real diamond.

Put another way, it would be like having two identical Ferrari's in front of you, down to the very last nut and bolt. Exact same performance, quality, etc. One costs $50K, one costs $200K - what would you rather buy? I dunno maybe not a flawless analogy but you get the point.

[killramos]

Tiffany or Bust boys

[revelations]

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I'm impressed with the seven guys (so far) that spent >30k. Buncha big swingin dicks in here.

Hey if you have that kind of disposable income (guaranteed loss) then why not? Being rich gives you the option of pissing your money away without affecting your balance sheet.

Having said that, I also know rich people who would never spend over 4 figures on jewelery.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[botox]

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Got married when I had no money. Score!

Me too, and she paid for the rings and wedding!! What a sucker lol. But marriage is going strong at 21 years now and I have since updated her ring.... several times.....

[Disoblige]

Anything around 1 carat looks really nice on most women, especially when the other CCCs are top notch.
With ring included all set and done you'd be looking around $15k for that anyways.

Too many people focus too much on how much they should be spending, when they should be looking more into what would look great -and- in their budget.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Anything around 1 carat looks really nice on most women, especially when the other CCCs are top notch.
With ring included all set and done you'd be looking around $15k for that anyways.

Too many people focus too much on how much they should be spending, when they should be looking more into what would look great -and- in their budget.

$15K sounds really high for that spec - 0.9ct perfect color, perfect cut, almost perfect clarity (VS1/2 - you need a microscope to see the flaws) is $3355 lab $7173 mined (blue nile). Spence would probably want $15-20K for that though haha. There is definitely an artificial price bump at 1.0ct though. The band doesn't add a lot - simple ones are around $250-500 and a platinum band full of tiny diamonds is around $1.5-2K.

For Men, amazon actually has really nice tungsten bands for $30 haha. You can buy 3 or 4 of them and then who cares what happens to it.

[Swank]

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For Men, amazon actually has really nice tungsten bands for $30 haha. You can buy 3 or 4 of them and then who cares what happens to it.

That's what I did, well just got 2, great to have a spare!

[Disoblige]

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$15K sounds really high for that spec - 0.9ct perfect color, perfect cut, almost perfect clarity (VS1/2 - you need a microscope to see the flaws) is $3355 lab $7173 mined (blue nile). Spence would probably want $15-20K for that though haha. There is definitely an artificial price bump at 1.0ct though. The band doesn't add a lot - simple ones are around $250-500 and a platinum band full of tiny diamonds is around $1.5-2K.

For Men, amazon actually has really nice tungsten bands for $30 haha. You can buy 3 or 4 of them and then who cares what happens to it.

Yeah it should be less than $15k, but there are various variables of course. But even on bluenile, the decent 1 carats are over $10k diamond alone. If you're closer to 1.1 carat, you'll be easily near that $15k mark with ring.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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That's what I did, well just got 2, great to have a spare!

That is my plan too. They look (and probably are) identical to the $300-500 versions you find in a jewelry store and this way you never have to worry about loss, theft, or damage.

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Yeah it should be less than $15k, but there are various variables of course. But even on bluenile, the decent 1 carats are over $10k diamond alone. If you're closer to 1.1 carat, you'll be easily near that $15k mark with ring.

Yeah if you go over 1ct the artificial price bump is significant, though if you are willing to buy up to the point where you need a 10x loupe and the appropriate expertise to see anything less than perfect, the price drops considerably (several thousand less). An almost perfect 0.9Xct is the sweet spot IMHO for size and value. Considering the only time a ring will ever be inspected is by your wife's friends, who probably know nothing other than "more carats is better", it seems pointless to pay for any quality beyond what the naked eye can see.

I imagine a huge ring would also be incredibly annoying. You'd always have to worry about theft (especially while traveling), and you can't even wear gloves unless they are giant winter mitts haha. I wonder if a lot of women have a dummy ring for traveling with a CZ or something even cheaper in it.

Also diamonds, even mined ones, don't seem to hold their value. Even though they are sold on spec, if you tried to sell a used one back to a shop or to a random person, you wouldn't get anywhere near what you paid for it.

[Misterman]

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Anything around 1 carat looks really nice on most women, especially when the other CCCs are top notch.
With ring included all set and done you'd be looking around $15k for that anyways.

Too many people focus too much on how much they should be spending, when they should be looking more into what would look great -and- in their budget.

I went with like a .96ct that had really good ratings for CCC. Bluenile with band included was 3600$

[rage2]

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Also diamonds, even mined ones, don't seem to hold their value. Even though they are sold on spec, if you tried to sell a used one back to a shop or to a random person, you wouldn't get anywhere near what you paid for it.

Even if you went to the effort of purchasing it new wholesale or whatever lowest price possible, you're losing 50% out the door. The used diamond market is designed to be terrible so that it doesn't affect the demand/supply balance of the new market, which can get away with controlling market prices.

[403ep3]

I went with a 1.75 cushion with above average/great CCC, but also custom made the band. I did a lot of research when time came and made sure I paid something I thought was fair.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Even if you went to the effort of purchasing it new wholesale or whatever lowest price possible, you're losing 50% out the door. The used diamond market is designed to be terrible so that it doesn't affect the demand/supply balance of the new market, which can get away with controlling market prices.

Makes sense. Even more reason to buy online direct or lab-made, since it's a horrible investment on something that is supposed to have a relatively steady market price. I hate the diamond business, the artificial inflation is absolutely insane. If Justin is right and lab diamonds are falling 60% per year that is great news.

[Tik-Tok]

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Me too, and she paid for the rings and wedding!! What a sucker lol. But marriage is going strong at 21 years now and I have since updated her ring.... several times.....

I asked my wife if she wanted me to upgrade her diamonds for our 15th anniversary. She told me a definite "no", as that's the ring we were engaged with, and she wouldn't want it changed for anything. Even if we suddenly became millionaires.

I bought her an iMac instead, lol.

[bigbadboss101]

Don't recall the exact figure but got it at Gem by Carati! Very nice. That reminds me, almost time to take it in for cleaning.

[Disoblige]

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I asked my wife if she wanted me to upgrade her diamonds for our 15th anniversary. She told me a definite "no", as that's the ring we were engaged with, and she wouldn't want it changed for anything. Even if we suddenly became millionaires.

I bought her an iMac instead, lol.

And this makes sense. Why would anyone want to upgrade something that was there when their marriage started? It's memories and has a certain degree of meaning.
It would actually be a bit disheartening to know that a SO would want to upgrade to something else just for vanity or whatever.

This is also why it's probably better to purchase something you think you'll keep for the long run instead of "buy now, upgrade later" mentality.